Beat
by porcelaindakota
Summary: He reached out, solemnly placing his hand on her belly, already round with their baby. [Tokka, five years postwar]


"You have to go," Sokka had said.

In response, Toph had stomped her foot hard against the cave floor, causing a tremble to vibrate up through the stone and into his body.

"No," she said.

"_Yes_," Sokka replied.

* * *

They'd been moving between hiding spots for nearly five years—ever since Aang had died at Ozai's hands, and they'd fallen back with the Resistance. The majority of these "homes" ("Don't call them that," Toph had said) were caves or dark tunnels underground, usually smoothed out and made comfortable with Toph's earthbending.

Katara had left soon after Aang's death with the remainder of the Water Tribe fleet, destined first for the South and then the North Pole, to search for the next Avatar in the line. (Just before they'd climbed into the ships, Hakoda had looked at his son the same way he'd stared at his dead wife's grave: it shook Sokka to the bone).

And now they'd lived five years this way, hiding and occasionally venturing out with the few rogue firebenders they'd gathered to launch a guerilla attack on some sort of Fire Nation establishment. They hadn't tried anything big since the night Aang died. They'd lived in this same routine since then, and it was strangely comforting.

And then, six months ago, they'd royally screwed up. _Literally. _

Toph got pregnant.

* * *

Now, the timing was what made it horrible; under other, "normal" circumstances, they could have dealt with a baby. And even if, after a while, they'd decided they couldn't manage a child while working with the Resistance—they could have found someone to take it in. There were all sorts of villages nearby; they would have found willing parents.

But this wasn't a "normal" circumstance.

Two months before—when Toph was four months pregnant, and officially restrained from raids—the Resistance had made a hit on a nearby supply depot. They'd taken some blasting jelly from the Fire Nation's own stores and destroyed the entire place.

The depot was supposed to be empty.

It wasn't.

Among the soldiers killed was one Heng Yao-Yin… the son of the second most powerful general in the Fire Nation army.

And now, at what was the worst possible time for the Resistance to rise back into view, when there was a baby on the way… the Fire Nation was out for blood, determined to finally, once and for all, crush the dissenters in its midst.

* * *

Even from the mouth of the cave, Sokka could see the fires burning in the distance, slowly moving closer and closer. Smoke curled up, a deeper, denser dark than the night around it.

"You have to go," he said again, his back on Toph. "The Army will be here soon."

"_No!_" She stomped again, harder, and Sokka stumbled and nearly fell to the ground. "I'm not leaving!"

"Yes, you are!" He spun away from the view and stopped before her, glaring. "It's not safe here! You're leaving, and that's _final._"

She sniffedher nose wrinkling, and Sokka felt a familiar wrench in his gut, that rush that this might be it, that the end was hurtling towards them. "I'm not leaving you," Toph said stubbornly. "We swore we were in this together."

There was a long moment of silence between them, and Toph clenched her toes uncomfortably; she could feel him studying her.

Toph didn't realize, but he was trying to memorize her; to take this image, of her hair mussed and wild and her cheeks flushed with anger and passion, and burn it into his mind. Because once again, the finality, the panic of this moment was beginning to creep in, and he knew one memory might be all they got.

He reached out, solemnly placing his hand on her belly, already round with their baby.

"On one condition," Toph finally said.

* * *

That was how, ten minutes later, they'd rounded up the one clergyman in their numbers, two other friends (to serve as witnesses), and were standing in the back of the cave—as far from the fires as possible—with their wrists bound together in red cord.

The priest's words washed over Sokka; he answered the questions quickly, still aware of their time limit. Toph, on the other hand, took her time, whether to savor the experience or annoy Sokka one final time, he didn't know.

Soon, however, a goblet of water (they had no wine, as prescribed by tradition) was placed in their hands; Toph held it as Sokka drank from it, and then bent to drink herself.

And just like that, they were married.

* * *

They disappeared down a wet, dark tunnel afterwards; Sokka leaned Toph against the wall and buried his face in her hair. He felt Toph's lips in the hollow his neck; he smelled jasmine blossoms.

"We've been living in this cave for weeks now… and you smell like _flowers," _he said. "How is that possible?" Sokka wondered how he could ask about something so… normal

"One of the ladies gave me a spritz," Toph replied. Her breath was cold on Sokka's neck. He felt goosebumps there. "She said… she said…" She took a deep breath, shoving the emotion down inside her. "She said I should smell good for my wedding…and my wedding night…" Her voice trailed off.

Sokka pressed his lips to the top of her head, feeling melancholy well up inside him. "I'm sorry it had to go like this," he said quietly. "That this was how your wedding had to go," he explained. The normalcy was gone; He pictured the kind of wedding Toph would have had in Gaoling, with her parents paying for the best of everything, and a responsible, sturdy, entirely alive Earth Kingdom nobleman standing with her at the altar, to love and take care of her forever.

Instead of a wealthy, earthbending aristocrat, she got a Water Tribe peasant. And instead of forever… he swallowed. She got a stupid stupid _stupid _boy who could feel the end of his life nearing with every second he held her.

"I'm so sorry," Sokka said again, his voice thick. "I really messed things up for you."

A small, elegant fist connected with his stomach. Toph pushed away from him, and Sokka doubled over, clutching his abdomen.

"Don't ever," Toph said, her voice and body shaking. "Don't… don't _ever _tell me you're sorry for this, for us. Because I'm not." Her eyes were oddly bright, a strange, watery jade. "It doesn't do us any good to sit here and be sorry for ourselves; this is who we are and what we've got."

She glared at him, and Sokka's head was pounding… a clock, ticking away the time he had left…

With this thought in mind he pushed Toph against the wall; she let out a yelp as he forced her up to his eye-level and kissed her fiercely, his hand gliding up her thigh and beneath her skirts.

"I love you," he breathed as her hands flew to his waistband. "I love you," he whispered over and over and over, until Toph went still in his arms and Sokka knew she could feel the vibrations of the army, moving closer and closer.

* * *

The nearer the tanks came, the thicker the smoke became; as they rolled close enough to raise and load their weapons, it choked Sokka, until he tied a wet rag over his mouth and pulled his sword from its sheath.

There was a moment, when the tanks stopped in front of the mouth of the cave, that Sokka could see the soldiers' faces flickering in the firelight. Silence settled heavy over the field. For a split-second, time seemed to come to a halt as the two sides faced each other.

But finally a canon blast came, and earth was flying everywhere and there was a scream from somewhere in front of Sokka; the battle had begun and everything was happening so quickly he didn't have time to register it all.

Then there was another explosion, closer this time—Sokka was thrown off his feet, and his sword flew from his hand, skidding across the stone floor. He tried to start to his feet, but something was wrong and his body was heavy and he couldn't force his legs to work…

A soldier towered above him…

* * *

Toph walked to the nearest village; she pulled her crimson hood over her head and tried to pretend she could not hear the sounds of the nearby battle, that she could not feel the vibrations, that they did not pound in her head until she felt sick. _The baby, _she told herself, the only motivation she could muster to keep from turning around.

When she finally arrived, the fight was still continuing; Toph could feel the ground shaking as she walked into the cheapest inn she could find. And when she put her coins on the counter, the elderly innkeeper said to her, "Won't be able to sleep a wink with all that racket goin' on."

The man stooped over as he pulled a ledger from under the counter. "You'll need to sign this, ma'am," he said in a wheezing voice.

"I'm blind," she replied. "I can't sign anything."

The man huffed and snatched the ledger and brush from her. "Tell me your name," he snapped, and Toph could imagine him viciously dunking the brush into an ink jar, scowling.

She paused.

"Toph Shui," she finally said, shutting her eyes.

And she put her palm to the curve of her stomach, marveling at how that heartbeat could remain so calm in the midst of so much tragedy, and how it did not race like hers as she tasted the name on her lips.

* * *

My first attempt at Tokka; I hope they're not horribly, irreparably OOC and you won't hate me all forever.

Additionally, due to a comment on LJ--Shui is just the surname I gave to Sokka. And Toph is approximately 17, Sokka 20.

-sugarland


End file.
